I like carrot cake as a rule, but this carrot cake is exceptional. Whether it is baked into loaf pans or in cake pans, it always turns out delectably moist and bursting with flavor. Plus, don’t you feel like carrot cakes are practically healthy? I mean, it is cake, but look at all that grated orange! It’s like a big Vitamin E, 10-calorie mountain in the middle of a vast, brown wasteland of everything that is bad for you. Carrots are the saving grace of carrot cake.

Moist cakes are the best cakes. I practically don’t even like angel food cake because it is too fluffily dry. Plus, I once had a bad experience using angel food cake mix to make muffins. Let the record show that pumpkin spice muffins should not taste lemon-fermented.

I whipped together some cream cheese frosting to further offset the healthy carrots. Ahem. Super simple. Beat together 8 ounces of cream cheese and 8 tablespoons of butter, then add in four cups of powdered sugar and a splash of vanilla. If you want stiffer frosting, just add more powdered sugar. Bam.

And! I added star anise for décor. Pretty, eh? We didn’t actually eat that part, and I felt that there are a bunch of cooler things I could do with it in the future. So expect some anise coming up sometime. We picked of the stars, but the frosting around them had been licorice-infused. An interesting addition.